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Understanding the AWS Free Tier: What You Can Do for $0

Explore AWS Free Tier's offerings—Always Free, 12 Months Free, and Trials—and learn to build cloud solutions with EC2, S3, Lambda, and more at zero cost.

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Prashant Chaudhari
Amazon Employee
Published May 13, 2025
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a powerhouse in cloud computing, but for beginners, it can feel overwhelming—especially when you’re not sure what costs what. Fortunately, AWS offers a Free Tier that lets you explore and build with no charge for most common use cases. In this blog, we’ll break down what the AWS Free Tier includes, what you can build with it, and how to stay within the $0 budget.

What Is the AWS Free Tier?

The AWS Free Tier is a promotion that gives free access to select AWS services for a limited time (and in some cases, forever). It’s perfect for students, hobbyists, or anyone who wants to test the waters of cloud computing without committing financially.

There are 3 types of Free Tiers:

  1. 12-Month Free Tier: Starts when you create your AWS account.
  2. Always Free: Services that are permanently free within usage limits.
  3. Trials: Short-term, limited access to premium services.

Popular Services in the AWS Free Tier

Here are some of the most useful services available at no cost (if used within the limits):

1. Amazon EC2 (Virtual Servers)

  • 750 hours/month of a t2.micro or t3.micro instance (Linux or Windows)
  • Enough to run a small server 24/7 all month long

2. Amazon S3 (Storage)

  • 5 GB of standard storage
  • 20,000 GET and 2,000 PUT requests/month
  • Great for hosting static files, images, or backups

3. Amazon RDS (Relational Database)

  • 750 hours/month of db.t2.micro (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB)
  • Ideal for experimenting with cloud databases

4. AWS Lambda (Serverless Functions)

  • 1 million free requests/month
  • 400,000 GB-seconds of compute time
  • You can build entire backend services without a server

5. Amazon CloudFront (CDN)

  • 50 GB data transfer out and 2 million HTTP/HTTPS requests per month
  • Perfect for speeding up your website or app

6. Amazon DynamoDB (NoSQL Database)

  • 25 GB storage and up to 200 million requests/month
  • Lightweight and scalable for mobile/web apps

What Can You Build for Free?

Here are a few real-world projects you can do entirely within the Free Tier:
  • Host a static website with S3 + CloudFront
  • Build a serverless API using API Gateway + Lambda + DynamoDB
  • Create a small WordPress site with EC2 + RDS
  • Analyze data using AWS Glue, Athena (limited usage), and S3
  • Experiment with machine learning using SageMaker Studio Lab (outside Free Tier but still free)

Tips to Stay Within the Free Tier

  1. Use the AWS Billing Dashboard to track your usage.
  2. Set up billing alerts so you don’t accidentally go over the limits.
  3. Delete unused resources like EC2 instances and volumes when you’re done.
  4. Understand regional differences — Free Tier limits apply per account, not per region.

Final Thoughts

AWS gives you a ton of room to learn and experiment, all without touching your wallet—if you use the Free Tier wisely. Whether you’re launching your first app, exploring cloud computing, or experimenting with data pipelines, there’s a lot you can do for $0.
 

Any opinions in this post are those of the individual author and may not reflect the opinions of AWS.

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